Apple Mac Mini M6 Review: Faster 2nm Chip and Big AI Gains, but a $300 Price Hike Makes It a Tougher Sell

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple's Mac mini with the M6 chip remains one of the most powerful compact desktops available, reviewers say, but a sharp price increase has taken some of the shine off the company's most affordable Mac.

A big price jump

The new model starts at $899, $300 more than its predecessor cost at launch. The base configuration includes 16GB of memory and a 256GB SSD.

Price increases are happening across the industry, not just at Apple, but the higher price still makes the M6 Mac mini a tougher sell than the M4 model was.

Performance

The chip is a major upgrade. The M6 has two more CPU cores than the M4 and M5 chips and is Apple's first 2nm processor for the Mac.

Apple says graphics performance is up to 2x faster than the M4 Mac mini, and a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core helps the M6 deliver up to 4x faster AI performance.

Memory bandwidth increased from 120GB/s on the M4 to up to 170GB/s with the M6.

Reviewers were impressed. Gizmodo said even multiple higher-end mobile chips from Intel and AMD still lag behind the base M6's 12-core CPU and GPU performance.

Storage complaint

The base storage is the biggest criticism. AppleInsider said that with Apple Intelligence, 256GB is just too small for a Mac mini. Upgrading to 512GB costs an additional $200, pushing the price to $1,099.

Verdict

Engadget rated it 8.7 out of 10, saying it remains a very powerful and compact desktop but is no longer the great deal it used to be.

BGR concluded that the Mac mini was so far ahead in value that the M6 model is still well worth its higher price.